Where'd THIS come from?

L

Lahree

Forums Enthusiast
I get up extra early every morning to take Ellie for a walk before work (yes, I am applying for sainthood). She is an absolutely pleasure to walk now--nearly 100% perfect. Cars, dogs, strollers, skateboards, cats, kittens--nothing phases her now. Until today. Ellie, who loves everyone, acted like she was going to be attacked and killed by every person we saw today! There were two men walking slightly behind us. Ellie kept looking back at them every two seconds to see if they were going to speed up and attack us. I had to keep getting her attention with "watch me" and every time she was asked she looked at me, but then would look back immediately to see if the two guys were getting closer. When we got to the end of the block, we went right, they went left, so we lost them (the darn stalkers), but then, we encountered a lady walking toward us. Ellie actually balked for the first time ever and pulled backwards trying to get away. Then she hid behind my leg. The lady had nothing in her hands, was not weird in any way that I could see and just smiled and nodded to us when we passed. Ellie was closest to the lady as we passed and she tried desperately to get behind me. The whole rest of the walk went this way. We'd see people coming out to their mailboxes or standing on their front porch or doing mundane things and she would shy away and be skiddish and balk.

What in the world would cause a dog's behavior towards to people change and make her look like she belonged on an episode of "Fear Factor?!?" She was fine yesterday. She is never out of our sight, so we know she has not encountered any scary strangers or weird people (other than us that is, lol). :confused2:
 
McKinley was skittish on his walks today.

Will we ever truly know what goes through these shelties' minds?

Must be the moon. I think the barometer has something to do with it too.
 
Might just be a change in the weather or she heard some arguing or noises outside that made her jumpy. If it continues though it could be another fear stage - they can still creep up in late adolescence. I do recall one of mine going through a late fear stage.
 
Ellie's counter part in weird behavior, Ember does this on occasion. Not scared of people but just random weirdness. Jumpy, nervous, twitchy don't touch me or look at me and as quick as it comes on,its gone. I call it her Drama Queen mode. I have never pinpointed a cause(done several medical workups because of it-always normal) and it usually only lasts a day or 2. I just ignore her when she acts this way and reenforcement calm relaxed, happy behavior. I often wonder if she has a stomach upset or is constipated but not to the point of diarrhea or vomiting or maybe she is sore somewhere. I don't know, maybe Ember's just off in the head.:lol:
 
you said you got up early to take her out? Was it still dusky out? maybe that threw her off a bit....different time of day normal surroundings look different??

Or she could just be having an off day....heck there are days were I dont want to deal with people either:lol:
 
You know maybe those guys behind you were up to no good and they freaked Ellie out. Dogs seem to have a sense about people. The rest of the walk was just a result of her not being able to emotionally recover between people encounters. Maybe take a different route tomorrow and see if that helps.:smile2:
 
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